One of my colleagues pointed me to this article where a celebrity was denied accommodation in Mumbai. It reminded me of my own troubles in finding a house.
I have stayed in five cities in the last five plus years that I have been working, and have changed seven houses since then.
Right since my early Delhi days, to Bangalore, Hubli, Mumbai and now Gurgaon, one thing that has always remained common across each of these cities is the pain associated with house hunting.
If it is the astronomical amount demanded in the form of deposit in Bangalore, it is the high rentals demanded in Mumbai that becomes the sore point. The fact that I would be a single bachelor staying in the house any which ways got seventy percent of the houses out of my realms. And this Anti-bachelor resonated in all of the cities without exception.
The most troublesome place to find a house is Mumbai. As it is popularly said in Mumbai, getting a roof on your head is the toughest part, everything else can be sorted.
The worse thing here, among other things, is the lease expiry issue. The lease is always made for eleven months and the owner has the complete right to kick you out of the house with no reasons whatsoever. This in spite of having a strict “no party at my place” rule to your friends, in spite of having a travelling job and rarely staying in the house and in spite of having no visitors at all.
I believe I am like the ideal tenant to have. The real tenant was not me at all! It was my stuff which needed a roof and I had to pay a huge monthly premium to let it be. I was out most of the time.
The other worse thing in Mumbai is the concept of a “co-operative housing society”. The whole purpose of such entities seems to be to ensure that the rental process becomes difficult. Even the owner has no say most of the time.
Non-Vegetarian? Sorry!
South Indian? Sorry!
From South India? Even then sorry!
Bachelor? Well, non-starter this one is.
Bachelor is the word that every landlord shuns like plague. So much that many a brokers suggested that I lie that my Mom would stay with me, or even go to the extent of lying that I was married!
Things here in Gurgaon seem to be slightly better. That I think is more a function of the huge supply!
Hopefully I would not have to embark on this journey again any soon.